HERITABLE JURISDICTIONS, in the law of Scotland, grants of jurisdiction made to a man and his heirs. They included civil and criminal jurisdictions, and were a usual accompaniment of feudal tenures. The power which they conferred on great families was recognized as a source of danger to the State, and led to frequent attempts being made by statute to restrict them, both before and after the Union. They were abolished in 1746, in con sequence of the rising of '45.